Games 1 and 2 featured far better game-calling. The refs stayed out of the action.

In Game 3, the refs became part of the action.

Detroit, however, failed to take advantage of the large number of free throws offered to them.

The Pistons are not known for missing free throws, with exception to Ben Wallace.

In this game, a 65% free-throw shooting from the team is uncharacteristic.

Miami walked into Detroit, dealt with the chaos, and punched the Pistons in the eye.

From Elias Sports Bureau:

• The Heat won Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals in Detroit 113-104, ending the Pistons' streak of defensive dominance at home. The Pistons had held their opponents below 100 points in each of their last 37 regulation-length home playoff games, an all-time NBA record. The previous record of 36 was set by the Minneapolis Lakers between 1949 and 1955, mostly before the 24-second clock was implemented.

Miami became the first visiting team to score 100 points in a regulation playoff game on the Pistons' home court since Orlando won in Detroit 101-98 in a first-round game in 1996.

• The Heat made 38 of 54 free-throw attempts in Game 3, the most free-throw attempts by an NBA team in a playoff game in five years -- since Shaquille O'Neal's Lakers took 57 foul shots in Game 2 of the 2000 Finals against Indiana.

I apologize for possible confusion with homerism, but if the league wants faster games and exciting games, they cannot call so many fouls. This game became rather boring well into the 3rd because the refs were there at every turn with reactionary calls from missed calls on previous possessions. The teams began to mug each other under the basket, and I cannot stress it enough that the teams began to play to the refs because they knew control became lost early in the 1st.

I'd rather see a 70-67 game called correct than an inconsistent batch of chaos from the wake of far-sighted refs. The consistent calls whistled along the perimeter of the 3-point line, and the referees also called a larger number of fouls away from the ball-carrier. Many of the calls that did come under the basket had little consistency. Often, a player would be clutched and grabbed and knocked in the paint. Suddenly, at odd times, the refs called fouls under the basket. Yet, the call would not make sense with the previous few possessions, where the same contact would not draw a foul.

I've stated this time and again to people who have asked . . . these Pistons are not the Bad Boys of 1988-1990.

If they were, then Game 3's chaos would have fueled them. It would have been a game that Laimbeer, Rodman, Thomas, Aguirre, Mahorn and Salley would have thrived.

Game 3 served Miami and Detroit the chance to beat up on each other.

If called like Game 3, future games will progress into further chaos and injury. The winner of this series will be quite injured, and the Western Conference winner will roll the Eastern winner.